Maggie Mahar is
the feisty voice of the blog Health Beat (www.healthbeatblog.org). The blog features daily posts about current
issues within the United State’s
health care system and Mahar’s take on their possible solutions. She draws her readers into her writing by
including personal anecdotes, interviews, and a comments page.Mahar uses reader comments to her advantage
and sometimes even creates posts based on these remarks (for example, the post:
“Why Does it Cost so much to Educate a Med Student?”)I know very little about the health care
arena; yet Mahar’s blog captivated me.I
recommend reading “Donating an Organ, Should it be a Gift.”This post perfectly blends personal
narrative, fact, and opinion, and exposed the numerous problems with organ
donation.

Some notable
features of the blog include: an e-mail subscription, “Health Beat’s Most
Read,” archives, and links to other notable health care websites.The blog is a project for The Century
Foundation, a nonprofit, public policy research institution whose goal is to
find the most effective solutions to the major challenges facing the United
States.Mahar’s blog also hosted the Health
Wonk Review, a biweekly digest of the best of the health policy blogs.

Maggie Mahar is an
excellent example of how one person can be a workplace chameleon.Her impressive resume began at Yale University
where she acquired both
a B.A. and Ph.D in English literature.In
addition, to writing Health Beat she
has published two books: Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care
Costs So Much and Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982–1999, a book
which Paul Krugman of the New York Times said "makes a devastating
case against the contention that the market is almost perfectly
efficient."Before specializing in
health care, Mahar was a financial journalist.Her list of credits include: Institutional Investor, The
New York Times, Bloomberg, and Barron's
(where she served as senior editor).